Ermyn King (she/her) is a white woman of slender build who is 5 feet 7 inches tall. The photo of her face and neck at left shows her as having fair skin with rosy undertones, a long oval facial shape, hazel eyes, and thick wavy shoulder-length dark brown hair lightly streaked with gray. It is parted on the left with long diagonally curving side bangs at right. A metallic drop earring of concentric black and gold diamond outline shapes dangles by and below each cheek as she smiles. Her golden yellow cardigan top contrasts with her dark hair, also in high relief against a tan wood-paneled back wall.
Ermyn’s audio description (AD) history flows from her background as an arts educator with a Master of Arts degree in Speech and Dramatic Arts and experience as a verbal describer and verbal description trainer in arts festival and museum contexts.
In 1999, Ermyn co-founded, wrote grants to fund, organized and received training by AD pioneers, and began audio describing for Pennsylvania’s first AD service. She later consulted for VSA Pennsylvania to help stimulate statewide AD expansion, and organized and co-led related AD training institutes.
She led or co-led dance/movement AD trainings at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Kennedy Center’s Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability. She also collaborated on writing the dance standards section of the Audio Description Coalition’s Standards for Audio Description and Code of Professional Conduct for Describers, 3rd Edition.
Ermyn has received awards honoring her inclusive arts/cultural access work from Penn State University and the Sight-Loss Support Group of Central PA, Inc.
She enjoys meeting and interacting with AD users (one of whom was her mother, who lived with legal blindness in the latter part of her life and attended audio-described events until she was almost 100 years old).
Ermyn King will be audio describing the following performances at the Center:
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Virginia Opera: The Barber of Seville on Nov. 12
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Virginia Opera: Sanctuary Road on Feb. 4
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The Peking Acrobats on Mar. 10 at 1 p.m.
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Virginia Opera: Madama Butterfly on Mar. 17